Dallas Fuel Owner and CEO Takes to Reddit for an AMA

When Season 1 of the Overwatch League was about to get underway, fans and pundits everywhere thought that the Dallas Fuel would be one of the top teams in the league.

And there was a lot of reasons to think that way. They had a great coach in Kyle “KyKy” Souder, that had just come off an amazing qualifier run at the 2017 World Cup, but were randomly drawn to play the eventual champions South Korea in the first round of the main tournament.

They had the eccentric Félix “xQc” Lengyel and Hyeon “EFFECT” Hwang, two difference makers that could turn the tide of a match by themselves.

However, things have simply not worked out for the Fuel. With all the shenanigans that took place with the team and the fact they can’t win, owner and CEO of the organization took to Reddit to take questions from fans. Here are the pertinent questions and answers from the AMA:

Why not just bench Rascal instead of releasing him after the trading period? /u/jonas691

hastr0: After a full team discussion, it was a necessity to remove Rascal from the team. I know our coaches continually tried to include Rascal into the team as evident by his appearance in the last map of our series vs LA Valiant in Stage 3. It is so unfortunate that this happened after the roster lock period, but because of the situation there was no other way for our team to move forward.

Why did you have to throw Rascal under the bus in his release statement? Seems very unprofessional on your side and unfair to the player. /u/bassteez365

hastr0: We felt we needed to explain the situation. If we had not and just released Rascal without any detail as to why we did that, we would have been met with a lot of criticism that would be unfair and unjustified for our team and players.

How does it go from Kyky stating Rascal is one of the most communicative players in the team and is really trying to get the rest of the team to practice more, to all of a sudden not communicating at all? Perhaps you should look into what Fissure posted about the importance of have an in-game translator as it seems very likely Rascal was being misunderstood /u/Harbinger136

hastr0: It isn’t going to be helpful or productive for me to discuss how Kyle’s statement about Rascal changed. I will say that the situation changed and it was in our best interested to release Rascal from the team because of that. We obviously do not have a player in game that can act as an English-Korean translator or vice versa, but we do have help on staff for that communication. That was a tough spot to be in for Rascal, but that is not what led to his release.

Why release Kyky after only giving him full control for a few weeks? What control was he lacking to begin with? /u/iamrade4ever

hastr0: The decision to release KyKy was made after consulting with all of our players and staff. The decision was a collective one.

Will you let the new coach have “full control”? /u/teadrinkit

hastr0: Yes! However, I think my tweet about full control was taken a bit too literal, but that’s my fault.

People talk about Kyky like he is more of a ‘player’s coach’. Is the team looking for a different style of Coaching moving forward? What is the biggest thing you look for when evaluating coaches?

hastr0: I won’t really speak to what Kyle’s style is. He can answer that if you ask him. The skills we are seeking in a new head coach revolve around organization, motivation, leadership and strategy.

What were you thinking signing OGE and knowing Effect / Rascal would hate him since he’s a booster? I’m not condemning him, he probably needed money, he apologized and was penalized. But seeing Effect not even looking at him makes me think they can’t form a great team. /u/calibrono

hastr0: Before we signed OGE, we had absolutely no idea he had participated in boosting. The league completed the standard investigation in his approval process. There was just no way for anyone to know he had done that without some really detailed knowledge. When we found out, OGE was very forthcoming about his minor involvement which the league addressed with a suspension and we addressed with OGE. He is really a great person who made a mistake that we find to be forgiveable and hope the fans do too. At this point, we think both Effect and OGE are true teammates.

Why has there been a lack of transparency and then why now (TBD if this AMA is transparent)? I understand if things are bad, you don’t want to stir the pot more, but it’s pretty equally bad now as before. /u/teadrinkit

hastr0: The fans always ask for more transparency, but when they get it, things are often twisted out of context. That’s why we tend to address questions officially when we really feel the need to. Fans are able to get a general sense of the team from performance or from our video/social content. That’s how I feel things should usually be offered when things are going well. Obviously, things haven’t been going so well so I am here to chat with you all.

xQc is not good enough. As someone who has watched just about all of his matches i have determined that his skill level doesn't meet the expectations of a professional team. He is certainly not the play maker and rising star you describe him as.